The Experience of a Lifetime
by Grimmlin
Summary: Freya Doyle is just an average girl, and she's average on purpose. But she has the ability to be so much more. The Doctor has just lost the Ponds, and the TARDIS has had enough of his sulking, so she sends him out on a mission. When their paths cross, they realize that sometimes friendship is all you need to change your world. (For a challenge on Polyvore. There will be prompts.)


**Hi everyone! There will be a short Author's Note at the bottom. Enjoy! :D**

I claim no ownership of any characters you might be familiar with, other than Freya Doyle. No copyright infringement is intended. I hope you enjoy this story!

* * *

Prompt #1 || Meeting the Doctor

_"When I lost it,_  
_Yeah you held my hand,_  
_But I tossed it,_  
_Didn't understand,_  
_You were waiting,_  
_As I dove into the waterfall."_

_~ Geronimo; Sheppard_

* * *

The Doctor had been floating in space for nearly a century now. He wasn't interfering, he wasn't saving anyone – he just wouldn't do that anymore. The universe clearly didn't care about him, so why should he care about the universe at all? Still, River's words – and Amy's – kept ringing in his head. _Don't be alone, Doctor._ How could he not be alone? Alone was keeping him safe. Alone was better than having friends who only disappear in the end, right?

There was a blip from the TARDIS – a soft beeping sound that she would make when she wanted to alert him to something. For the first three years it was nonstop blipping; alerts going haywire, left-and-right. He blocked them out, and eventually she seemed to get the message. She wasn't happy about it, but she got it. He wasn't helping anymore. He had stopped making people better. This was the first time in nearly a century that he'd heard the alert, and he did exactly what he did the last time – he ignored it.

She wasn't going down that easily, though. Apparently, she thought he'd had enough sulking, and she wouldn't stop her relentless humming until he went to look at the screen. There were coordinates.

_38.7000° N, 91.1990° W_

He sighed and ran his hands down his face. "No," he grouched to the TARDIS. "We're not going."

The constant hum in his mind grew louder and more annoying. It was almost like an itch that he couldn't get to. He reached back to scratch it, but there was no itch to scratch. He sighed; why was she being like this? Didn't she know he wanted to sulk? What was so important that he had to land at those precise coordinates? She obviously heard his thoughts, because an image flashed on the screen. It was a creature he hadn't seen in a very long while. It was a bookworm! Well, to be more precise, it was an adolescent Korofolaxpian, but bookworm was easier to say. For a brief moment, he felt the excitement again. He was going to have an adventure!

"Oh this is brilliant!" he said. "Come along…" he paused and looked around. The words he was about to say died in his throat. There was no one here to invite along with him. He could no longer say _Come along, Pond. _The TARDIS gave her equivalent of a sigh, and tried to nudge his mind back towards excitement. He frowned at the ceiling – why couldn't she just leave him alone? The nudging got more persistent, and the humming started up again.

"Fine!" he shouted. "Fine, I'll go catch the worm and take it home. _Then_ will you _please_ leave me in peace?"

The TARDIS didn't answer. He knew that if she had a face, it'd have a smug grin on it. He sighed and went to clean up. One hundred years didn't do much for his looks. He needed to shave his beard – he looked like an old hermit. A shower would probably help as well. He set the TARDIS for autopilot and let her land herself while he prepared for his mission. He had a worm to catch!

* * *

Freya groaned as she looked at the clock, which prompted a well-known patron of the library to shush her from their table near the window. She wanted to tell them to shove it, but instead she simply smiled and apologized. She was playing it safe - she didn't want to get on Old Lady Suza's bad side. She was just so exhausted. This was the third day in a row that she's had a killer migraine, only today she was so nauseous that she couldn't even finish her lunch! She'd been looking forward to getting a nice juicy apple from the farmer's market for weeks, and now she wasn't even able to eat it.

Another patron dropped a book through the return slot by the front door, and that's when she realized that she'd barely made a dent in the shelving she was meant to do. It was only thirty minutes until closing time, and if she wanted the day off tomorrow, she'd have to finish this. That meant she'd have to stay after and work overnight just to get things done. She debated calling in sick tomorrow, but she couldn't get out of taking her aunt to the airport - a three hour drive that she wasn't looking forward to making.

She sighed and decided to just give in. She could always take a quick nap downstairs if she needed to - just a moment to close her eyes, she thought as her head dipped forward and her eyelids slid shut. She was startled awake when someone sat something on the counter in front of her. It was Old Lady Suza, who seemed to be finished with her book.

"Thank you dear, it was a delightful read!" she said.

Freya smiled. "I'm glad you enjoyed it Ol- I mean, Mrs. Suza."

The elderly woman simply smiled with a twinkle in her eye. She was always so kind, and Freya couldn't remember her ever looking younger than she did now. She was always delightfully old and gave wisdom to those who needed it - even if they didn't ask. For a quick moment, concert flickered over the woman's features.

"Are you okay, Mrs. Suza?" Freya asked.

The old woman leaned towards her, and looked towards Freya's shoulder. "Dear, there's something…" she said, pointing at the back of her own neck. Freya reached back, but didn't feel anything. There was a small bump, but she didn't think it was out of the ordinary. Her neck was cold though – it was freezing – and covered in goosebumps.

"I'm sure it's nothing, dear," the old woman said. She left through the front door, and Freya followed to lock it behind her. She was always the last to leave - you could count on it. Freya looked around her at the empty library. Honestly, it was a mess, and she was getting anxiety just looking at it. The books needed shelving as soon as possible; headaches be damned.

"I guess I'll begin with this one," she said to herself. It was the book that Old Lady Suza had just left on the counter. Pride and Prejudice. Freya frowned; she had just finished reading this book only a week ago, but she couldn't - for the life of her - remember what it was about. She remembered that it was set in the past, and that there were many different characters to keep track of, but she didn't remember any of the characters names. She didn't know who the story focused on. She couldn't remember what happened at all.

She shook her head and scoffed. She was just being silly; there was nothing wrong. It was probably just because of her headache. It was kind of difficult to think when it felt like the bells at Notre Dame Cathedral were ringing in your head. She put the book on a pushcart with the other fiction books, and began shelving them in the correct order. There were at least three more carts of books that needed to be shelved - tonight was going to be a long night.

* * *

The Doctor felt the TARDIS land with a thump, and the familiar wheezing noise. If he were being honest, he should probably just let her fly herself. He'd have better luck of getting where he needed to be, but then she wouldn't be more than just a ship. Flying her gave them that bond – that common thing that made them go together so well. If he took away the flying, what would he do all the time? What would his contribution be?

He grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on as he left the TARDIS. He couldn't deny the spark of excitement he felt being in a new place, even if he had just lost his two best friends. The TARDIS, which sat in an alleyway just behind him, hummed in his mind. Okay, so he hadn't just lost them, but he couldn't deny that it still hurt – just as each of his other companions' departure hurt him. He pushed himself off the TARDIS, and left the alleyway to have a look around. He needed to know where he was, and then he'd know where to go.

It was dark out, and there was hardly any shops or anything. He was so accustomed to London and the constant bustling that he'd forgotten little places like this existed. He took a deep breath through his nose; it was Earth, 2013, America… Missouri, if he remembered the coordinates correctly. Judging by the position of the moon it was… 2:45 in the morning. There was a chance of rain later in the week. Overall, it was lovely weather. But what did people do here? Wasn't it dreadfully boring in a town like this? He walked until he found himself in town square. There was a fountain – a small one – in the center of the square, with shops situated around it. They were all closed though.

Of course, everyone would be asleep. Humans and their resting patterns were so… primitive. Still, he'd never be done saving them, would he? No, he thought. Not anymore. After this, it was over. He was done. There would be no more saving. There would be no more helping people and making them better. He was finished with all of that. This was his last regeneration, and he would spend it alone – just as the universe intended for him to be.

At the head of the square he saw what he assumed to be the town hall building, and directly opposite of that, he saw a building with a sign in front of it, proclaiming – in big letters – _Thatcher Public Library_. Perfect! This is where he needed to go. If there were a bookworm on the loose, a library would be perfect. Hopefully the worm hadn't caused too much damage already. An adolescent Korofolaxpian got quite nasty when it was hungry.

He studied the front of the library. There were cameras near the door, and he certainly didn't want any record of his being here, so he decided that the back would be a better option. He ran around towards the back door, and was glad to see that it was metal, unlike the rest of the building. He sonicked the lock and let himself inside. It was dark, but from what he could tell, it was some sort of store room or employee lounge. He took a step forward and his foot collided with a metal bucket, which then went tumbling and made a great big racket.

"Shhh…" he said to the bucket, before continuing on.

He looked at the shelves that filled the library. For such a small town, their library was quite impressive – though not as good as his library on the TARDIS. Of course, he didn't suppose that was the town's fault. The TARDIS in-and-of itself was more impressive than anything else in the universe – at least, it was to him. Still, he was faced with a new dilemma – how did he find a small, wispy worm in all of these books? Forgoing an actual thought-out plan, he climbed the first ladder he saw and began looking through the books, and knocking many of them on the ground as he did so.

"_Hello?"_

The Doctor rolled his eyes and sighed. Of course there would be someone in the closed library. Of course there would be one person – in the whole of the sleeping town – that would be awake, and of course, they'd have to be here. His job of finding the worm had just gotten a whole lot more difficult. He didn't have time for this, though. He moved to the next aisle and climbed the ladder.

* * *

Freya had made it through two of the four carts, and was beginning on the third, when a wave of exhaustion washed over her. Her headache intensified, and she had to go sit down. She in one of the comfy armchairs and curled up into a ball, willing her headache to subside. Then, there was a pressure on the back of her neck, and her headache was gone. It was the first moment of clarity she'd had in almost a week. She felt awake and ready to face the day – not like she was moving through the motions with a fog in her mind. That was definitely odd.

She stood from the armchair and wobbled a bit. She fell back down into the chair before trying to stand again – so she was still dizzy, but at least she wasn't in awful pain anymore. She carefully stood and made her way to the circulation desk. She was in no condition to be climbing the ladders next to the shelves right now, but maybe she would be in a few minutes. Instead, she got to work on stuffing the envelopes. She had a pile of return-notices, and a pile of flyer envelopes that had to be addressed and filled. _This should be fun_, she thought as she got to work.

She was making good time, and her head wasn't spinning as much anymore. Within fifteen minutes, she'd already finished a-fourth of the first stack without cursing all the people who didn't return their books on time and therefore forced her to fill these envelopes with notices that would never get read.

She had just finished filling the last of the return-notice envelopes when she heard a noise from the back of the library. She whipped her head around, but couldn't see anything moving behind the shelves. Maybe the noise came from the back room. "Hello?" she called out. There was no reply. She frowned and stood from her seat; had she just imagined the banging noise? She was about to sit back down when the sound of books falling filled the library. It was coming from the biography section.

She took a breath and grabbed the tiny flashlight from her key ring. The sound had stopped, but she could vaguely make out movement towards the top of the ladder. Frightened, she quickly grabbed the letter opener. She'd accidentally cut herself with this many times. Maybe it wouldn't do her a world of good, but it'd certainly give whoever was here a nasty cut. She rolled her eyes, embarrassed at her own naivety, but she still kept hold of the letter opener. She crept towards the biography section, where she shined the light. No one was there, but books littered the floor.

"What the hell?" she whispered to herself. She was beginning to get upset; she had _just_ shelved those. "Okay, who's there?" she shouted. There was no answer, but she could hear the sound of more books hitting the floor. She quietly made her way around the corner of the nearest bookshelf, and that's when she saw him. There was a man – he couldn't have been older than his late-twenties, but he dressed like her grandfather – and he was throwing her perfectly neat books into the floor as if he had lost something.

"Where are you?" he growled.

She felt anger rush through her. How dare he come in here and ruin all of her hard work. "Hey!" she said. He didn't seem to notice her. She sat the letter opener on one of the shelves and turned her flashlight on a brighter setting. She aimed it at him and walked forward. "I said, hey!" Her hand grabbed his shoulder, and he spun around. There was a sort of manic-ness and childlike quality about him, and Freya didn't know whether to giggle and ruffle his hair or be frightened of the man with a young face and ancient eyes.

"Oh," he said in surprise. "Hello there."

He turned back to the bookshelf and began shuffling through the books again. She huffed and stopped his motions. "Stop it!" she said. "I just shelved those!"

"Sorry. There's a thing… it's a, worm thing. Look, you wouldn't understand. Just, go home and it'll be cleaned up in the morning," he said with a big smile on his face, like a grownup offering candy to a child.

She shook her head. "No." She folded her arms over her chest and said; "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"I told you, there's a… worm thing. I'm the Doctor, by the way. You've not experienced any memory lapses lately?" he asked. He held up some sort of instrument that made a whirring noise and shone a green light on her face. "No, definitely not. Only average intelligence…"

Her eyes widened. "I beg your pardon?" she said.

"Oh…" he replied with wide eyes. "Sorry. It's just… no, hang on. That could be a symptom."

"A symptom of what?" she asked.

He looked at her and scratched his chin. "Yes… it could very well be. Tell me, have you forgotten anything important recently? A paper you've read, or a book you couldn't put down, and now you can't remember anything that happened in it?"

She was shocked. It took a lot to freak her out, but this definitely did. She had just felt that earlier with _Pride and Prejudice_. She couldn't remember anything at all about it, and she had only read it days before. Realizing he was waiting for an answer, she said; "Uh, maybe… I'm not sure."

He hummed in thought, and then moved closer to point the green whirring thing at her. He walked around her and she heard the thing go up in pitch when he scanned her neck. "Aha!" he said.

"Aha? What aha? What are you doing?" she asked.

"The worm is definitely here, and it's gotten to you already," he murmured, looking at something on the whirring stick. "Well, it shouldn't be so bad. It's only been here for… a week?" he guessed.

"What do you mean _it's gotten to me already_?" she asked. "Is it like, a monster or something?" she asked sarcastically.

The man – the Doctor, he'd said – rolled his eyes. "No," he said, as if it were the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "It's an alien."

"You've lost it. You're insane… and you're in the library, and… oh gosh. I'm going to get in so much trouble," she said to herself, pacing a short distance. "I wasn't even supposed to work late, but I had this terrible headache, y'know? And I just couldn't finish four carts of books with the headache, and now I'm going to have even more work to do because you've messed up all the shelves, and I just…"

The Doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Are you having an episode?" he asked.

She wasn't sure. She tended to ramble when she got scared – it was a bad habit. "No… I don't think so," she replied. "I ramble when I'm frightened."

"Don't be frightened. I'm just the Doctor," he said, letting go of her shoulders. Before she could say anything else, he said; "You'd mentioned headaches…"

She nodded. "Bad migraines, for the past week. I just figured that it was because of the book I'd been reading – that I'd stayed up too late, y'know – but they didn't really go away. Nothing really helped, except reading the book."

"Which book?" he asked.

"Pride and Prejudice," she replied. "I just couldn't put it down."

The Doctor smiled, like a kid in a candy store. "This is brilliant!" She raised an eyebrow, which prompted him to explain. "The worm – well, technically, it's a Korofolaxpian from the planet Arbornist, but bookworm's easier to say – anyway. It's a worm-like creature, and it latches onto a living host with the ability to think and process, and just generally retain knowledge. That's what it feeds on – knowledge."

"Are you saying that I've been host to a parasitic knowledge worm that has a thing for Jane Austen novels?" she asked. The Doctor nodded. "Something has been eating my brain? I've been getting munched on by a zombie worm and I didn't even know it?!"

"Well, if you want to see it that way. You wouldn't have seen it in the mirror, because it creates a perception filter that the host can't see through, and therefore doesn't know it's there. But it's cold to the touch," he explained.

"That's why I can't remember the book," she said.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "You know, you're taking this rather well."

She shook her head and held up a hand. "No, no I'm not. I'm just good at a poker face. Besides, it'll probably sink in later tonight, and cause a full-blown panic attack."

"Oh, well… that's not very good. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about, but we need to get this worm. Are you still having headaches?" he asked. She shook her head. "No, I didn't expect so. The perception filter should be fading by now, and you should be able to see it – if only just a little – and you can help me catch it!"

He began to run off towards the front of the library. "Wait," she said, grabbing his shoulder. "You're not going to… kill it, are you?" she asked.

"No, of course not. That's not how I do things," he said.

She nodded and smile a little. "Okay. So, let's find this worm before I have a mental breakdown."

He smiled a wide smile and said; "Geronimo!"

* * *

Things hadn't exactly gone as planned. As it turns out, the worm actually did exist, and the Doctor wasn't crazy; nor was Freya. They had found it sleeping inside the book. Its head poked out of one end like a bookmark, and Freya was shocked at what it looked like. It was almost transparent, and it was wispy. It had thread-like tentacle things that moved away from its body like hair caught in static. It was actually quite lovely to look at, but it still fed off of her and took away her memories of a book she'd read. What other memories could it have taken?

Freya thought it'd be a simple capture for the Doctor, who seemed to know exactly what he was doing at all times. She quickly found out that he didn't always know what he was doing, and this time, he seemed to be making things up as he went along. He seemed to have conveniently forgotten that the Korofolaxpian worm thing could sniff out intelligence, which gave her own ego a tiny little boost, until it jumped off the table and made its way towards the Doctor. At the moment, he was trying to fight it off, but it was like a magnet.

"Doctor, what's it doing?" she shouted.

"It's latched onto me as a food source because I'm the most intelligent mind in the room," he said. "It could smell my brain in its sleep."

She rolled her eyes. "Well that's just great! How do you stop it?" she asked.

"Uh…" he said, trying to hold it back. It made a screeching noise. "Cyanide!"

"What? I thought you said you weren't going to kill it!" she shouted.

He huffed and pushed the worm down, holding it as gently as he could against the floor. It seemed to be pacified for the moment, but if the doctor moved a muscle, it would start thrashing around again. "No, cyanide doesn't kill them. It acts kind of like a sleeping pill. It makes them all… woozy and happy."

She raised an eyebrow. "So it's like pot?" she asked.

"Uh... yes. Essentially, yes," he replied. His grip slipped slightly, and the worm screeched again and began thrashing, coming dangerously close to the Doctor's neck.

"You wouldn't happen to have any cyanide on you?" she asked.

He shook his head, holding the creature away from him. "No, you?"

"Sorry, fresh out!" she shouted sarcastically. Then, she got an idea. Her aunt had been reading up on some myths going around on the internet, and she remembered reading one that stuck out. "Wait! I have an idea!" she shouted. She ran behind the desk and got her lunchbox out of the mini-fridge.

The Doctor looked at her in confusion. "This is no time for a snack!" he shouted.

"Just hold on!" she replied. She pulled the container of sliced apples from her lunchbox and took the seeds out of the slices. She laid two tissues down on the desk, and sandwiched the seeds in-between them, before smashing them with the heavy paperweight. She removed the top tissue, and carried the crushed seeds over to where the worm was.

"Oh…" the Doctor breathed. "Oh yes! That'll definitely work!"

"Here you go," she said to the worm. She held the tissue out, and the worm sniffed it. It inched closer, and took a piece of the seed. In no time it had eaten all of the seeds and became more peaceful than it had been before. It was relaxing, and the Doctor passed it to her to hold.

"Follow me…"

* * *

**Okay, I hate to stop there, but the next prompt is "First Time in the TARDIS" or something like that, so I can't fit it in here. Oh well. :) I hope you've enjoyed this. I don't think this will be romance. I think they're just going to be friends. **


End file.
